I absolutely loved elementary school. Every morning I woke up with a new sense of adventure in my mind and a twinkle in my eyes. School had never been challenging but instead interesting. The thrill of competition that seemed to dictate the schooling system is what kept me focused. I always had to know the right answer and had to know it first. I remember being brought to tears in my first years of learning whenever I answered a question or problem incorrectly. This idea of how school should be was completely flipped upside down when I met my fourth grade teacher, Mrs. Pushee. She challenged my idea of learning and taught me that school was an exercise in self exploration instead of inter-classroom competition. One of the projects we completed was to research and explore the life of early civilization explorers. I finished in a very timely fashion and started goofing off in my class. I was always focused on doing what I needed to do to receive the grade I desired then entertaining myself. Mrs. Pushee then looked at my project and started asking me questions about the man I researched, John Smith. At that time I didn’t realize what she was doing, but now I know she was getting me excited to learn, instead of learning for the sake of tests. I had to learn how to be excited to learn.
This idea of how school should be was completely flipped upside down when I met my fourth grade teacher, Mrs. Pushee. She challenged my idea of learning and taught me that school was an exercise in self exploration instead of inter-classroom competition. One of the projects we completed was to research and explore the life of early civilization explorers. I finished in a very timely fashion and started goofing off in my class. I was always focused on doing what I needed to do to receive the grade I desired then entertaining myself. Mrs. Pushee then looked at my project and started asking me questions about the man I researched, John Smith. At that time I didn’t realize what she was doing, but now I know she was getting me excited to learn, instead of learning for the sake of tests. I had to learn how to be excited to learn.